Well, dear readers, it took Dr. Chew all of four seconds to make the determination that the last tooth on the back lower right of my mouth was infected and had to go. He’s actually been monitoring it for a year now. For some reason, I thought that tooth had a crown on it, but that wasn’t so. With no time to even think, he was shooting me up with Novocain and plenty of it. He let that take effect for twenty minutes while explaining to me the four to six month process it would be once he extracted the tooth. It all went in one ear and out the other, but basically it will involve going somewhere for some minor oral surgery at some point, and then at the end of the process I will have a porcelain cap there. Now, Dr. Chew is quite brilliant – for example, when he inserts the needle for the Novocain, he knows that I hate that most of all, so he first gives me a little pre thing, and then just before he inserts he starts pinching the cheek and moving it around. By the time I get over that distraction, the needle is already in. With the tooth extraction, he handled it very cleverly, knowing I was a wreck before he even began it. He said, “I’m going to wiggle the tooth and you’ll tell me if it’s too much pain and I’ll give you some more Novocain.” He wiggled and it was REALLY painful, so he gave me some more Novocain, which I could not even feel by that point. Then he said, “I’ll wiggle it some more and tell me if it’s okay now.” So, he wiggled again for a bit and just as I was about to tell him it was still a bit much for me he’d already pulled the damn thing out. He put some gauze in my mouth that I had to bite down on and keep there for forty-five minutes. I’ll be back on Tuesday for him to check on it and to do my teeth cleaning. I left in a daze, frankly.
I then went to my local CVS to get the Amoxicillan – that took about twenty minutes. I came home, took two Amoxicillan, and then just answered e-mails and did some work on the computer. I removed the gauze, but it was still bleeding, so I put some new gauze in there and bit on that for thirty minutes, then removed it. The instructions said that light bleeding was normal, and that’s what it was after that – it finally stopped altogether around seven. Then a friend came over and we went to Jerry’s Deli, where I had an omelet with American cheese and avocado, my first food of the day. I was instructed not to drink through a straw, so I had only a couple of sips of Diet Coke from the glass and then some water from the glass. I also had some cottage cheese. Then the friend and I came home and we sat on the couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a motion picture I’m quite fond of on DVD entitled Mirage. Since hanging out with Diane Baker, I’d wanted to see it again, as its my favorite performance of hers. I first saw the film at a sneak preview at the Grauman’s Chinese, about two months before its release. I really liked it a lot, but you could feel the audience beginning to resist the film about fifteen minutes before the end, where they had to have all the explanations about everything that had gone before. And that’s always been the problem with it. The Peter Stone script (from a novel called Fallen Angel by Walter Ericson, a nom-de-plume for author Howard Fast) has very witty things and good dialogue and Edward Dmytryk’s direction is excellent, as are the performances of Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Kevin McCarthy, Anne Seymour, Jack Weston and George Kennedy. But the best performance in the film, so good, in fact, that when the character is no more the film literally loses some of its life, is Walter Matthau in one of his breakout roles. He is just great as a sad sack but canny private eye. The music by Quincy Jones is, for the most part, really good and very Mancini-like. But several times in the movie he succumbs to Mickey-Mousing and over the top cues that really don’t help the proceedings. I’d love to see this on Blu-ray but not from this element, which is not so hot.
After that, the friend left. The Novocain had worn off, so it got painful in the extraction place, but nothing near the pain that had been there when the tooth was there. So, when I’ve posted these here notes I take another Amoxicillan and two Tylenol and it’s off to bed for me. I will be super careful brushing the teeth.
Today, I may eat the exact same meal as last night, or I may do some pasta in butter or something like that. Then we have our second Kritzerland rehearsal, which lasts about three hours. I’ll also have a telephonic call with our New York MD to go over everything and make sure he understands the lay of the land.
Tomorrow, I will try to relax and completely recuperate and I know there’s some kind of something to do somewhere and hopefully someone will remind me of whatever it is. Saturday is our stumble-through, then I’m seeing Ragtime out in Redondo Beach. Sunday is sound check and show.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, eat something soft, hopefully pick up some packages, have a rehearsal, have a telephonic conversation and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films of Gregory Peck and Walter Matthau. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to be done with this part of The Ordeal of the Tooth Extraction.